English Entertainment
Judith McHale to become Discovery CEO in June
MUMBAI: The brains behind Discovery Communications – founder and chairman John Hendricks – is stepping down as the company’s CEO. Company president and COO Judith McHale will assume that role.
In a board meeting held yesterday Hendricks stated his desire that the CEO and chairman positions be separated. He will continue to serve as the company’s chairman. McHale will assume her new position from 17 June. She joined the organisation in 1987 as general counsel. She has been serving as president and COO since 1995.
In a company release, Hendricks made the following remarks about the decision. ” I incorporated Discovery at age 30 in 1982. During 2002, 20 years after incorporation, I began to consider a new management structure in which I could continue to provide strategic leadership by developing and overseeing an ambitious growth agenda at the board level. I strongly believe that I will be best able to focus my energies on further corporate expansion by relinquishing my daily chief executive officer duties.
“For some time now I have believed, in terms of modern corporate governance, that the skill sets and passion of a founding entrepreneur are best channeled through a chairman role. This is after a company has successfully navigated the challenges of early development and has clearly established a market leadership position within 20 years of the company’s founding.”
The company added that McHale has led DCI’s development in television, advanced media, on-line and retail services. Her leadership in expanding DCI’s television services included the acquisitions of TLC in 1991 and the Travel Channel in 1997, the launches of Animal Planet in 1996 and the Discovery Health Channel in 1999, and the development of six targeted channels.
During her tenure she also developed strategic partnerships around the world including DCI’s global alliance with the BBC, and a major joint venture with The New York Times Company to co-own the Discovery Times Channel.
English Entertainment
Ellison takes his Paramount-Warner Bros case straight to theater owners
The Skydance chief goes to CinemaCon with promises and a skeptical crowd waiting
CALIFORNIA: David Ellison strode into a room packed with thousands of cinema owners and executives at CinemaCon in Las Vegas on Thursday and did something rather bold: he looked them in the eye and asked them to trust him.
The chief executive of Paramount Skydance vowed that his company would release a minimum of 30 films a year if regulators greenlight its proposed $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery, a deal that has made theater owners deeply, and loudly, nervous.
“I wanted to look every single one of you in the eye and give you my word,” Ellison told the crowd. “Once we combine with Warner Bros, we are going to make a minimum of 30 films annually across both studios.”
It was a confident pitch. Whether it landed is another matter. Cinema operators have already called on regulators to block the deal, and scepticism in the room was hardly concealed.
Ellison pushed back by pointing to recent form. Paramount, born from the merger of Paramount Global and Skydance Media last August, plans to release 15 films this year, nearly double the eight it put out in 2025. Progress, he argued, was already underway.
He also threw theater owners a bone they have long been chasing: all films, he pledged, would run exclusively in cinemas for a minimum of 45 days, drawing applause from a crowd that has spent years fighting for exactly that commitment across the industry.
“People can speculate all they want,” Ellison said, “but I am standing here today telling you personally that you can count on our complete commitment. And we’ll show you we mean it.”
Fine words. The regulators, however, will have the last one.
